Page 134 of The Last Valkyrie

If I grew any angrier, I might’ve been able to snap the ropes off me with sheer strength, despite how tightly they were tied.

My voice dropped to a deadly hue. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother, bitch. Lindi actuallyraisedme, unlike you did for Astrid. Perhaps if Astrid wasn’t reared and forgotten by such a hateful bully, we could have been actual . . . sisters.”

The quiet rage in my tone was matched by the expression on the Tomekeeper’s face.

Before she could say more—or be coaxed into dropping the wall she’d erected around me to slap the shit out of me for speaking ill about her and her dead daughter—Dahlia wheeled around to leave.

“Answer me this, Tomekeeper. How are you here?”

She froze again. It was almost too easy riling her up, locked away behind this invisible force field. It gave me a sense of power I knew I shouldn’t have felt—certainly not while goading the damned woman.

I knew boastful people like Dahlia Anfinn. She, too, had been relegated to the bottom of the ladder as a Hersir at the academy. Stuffed away in the library, given a fancy title to satiate her desire for power:Tomekeeper.It was laughable.

“It’s an interesting thing, Linmyrr. The power of blood.”

My breath hitched, heart thumping loudly in my ears.

Facing me once more, Dahlia gave me a cruel grin. “All the blood I leeched from your tattooed lover? Well, imagine my surprise when I found theanomalycoursing through him. In whatever torrid, kinky affair you shared, he fed on you at some point. It made him stronger—resistant to my tests, which should have debilitated him.”

I’d already known that part. But I wasn’t ready for what came next. Nowhere near.

“Testing the blood over months, I became certain it was yours.” She put her hands on her wide hips, smiling proudly at me. “And now look at you. Powerful.Dragonkin.” She breathed the word like it was a dream.

“. . . You wish to hold that power yourself,” I eked out, stunned.

She flapped a dismissive hand at me. “Nothing so simple, girl. First I wanted to bring my poor girl back. But even your tainted line wasn’t strong enough for resurrection. I should have known.” Her finger wagged, and she tsked. “However, putting your blood insideme? Yes, it did make me more powerful. It’s how I can control you like a puppet, girl, bending and molding the very blood in your veins to my whims.”

So that’s how she brought me to my knees. My blood trulyhadbeen on fire!“You think this makes you dragonkin, Dahlia?”

“Of course not. Perhaps it makes me strongenough, however . . .” She trailed off, gazing far into the jungle behind me. Then, shaking her head and snapping out of it, she clicked her tongue. “Suppose it doesn’t matter. It allowed me to intercept your dreams, whatever the case. This is truly a power we don’t yet understand.”

I reeled, bumping into the section of shield behind me. Rolling my head back uncomfortably on my neck, I groaned. “You . . . spied on my dream? Listened as Korvan spoke with me?”

“His plansaredevilish, I admit. Can’t expect anything less from a being whose been slinking around for centuries, eh?” She threw her arms up. “And he’s still not here! Suppose the dark lord has played both of us for fools. Any idea why he dragged you all the way out here?”

“Still working on that,” I grunted, bowing my head shamefully.

“Well, keep that tidy brain of yours spinning, cadet.” She smiled at me and turned around to leave.

This time, I knew I couldn’t stop her. I was deflated, defeated. I would never feel betrayed by Tomekeeper Dahlia, because I had never trusted her in the first place. Yet to be caught in her web soeasily. . . I felt like a damned fool.

At the rock where she’d been standing, she spoke again in that whispery, sorrowful tone, her eyebrows arching with the first sign of hopelessness I’d ever noticed from the evil woman. “Goodbye, Ravinica.”

Then she bent low and picked up another sack from behind the rock, swinging it over her shoulder.

A shocked gasp poured past my lips.

It was the same bag Deitryce had been carrying on her shoulder.

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